Highmoor 1st April

Date: 1st Apr 2022 @ 12:58pm

Welcome to another week in Highmoor!

The children have worked hard this week on maths and reading assessments and should be very proud of the mature way they approached them, double checking their answers and reading everything through carefully. 

We had RE day on Tuesday where we were considering the big question of what is right and wrong and how people's beliefs can affect this. We also thought about what other influences there are on us when we make decisions like the situation we are in, who we are with, what consequences we might face. We had 3 visitors to class to explain how their religious beliefs influence them. Lucien's Dad and sister, Mr Morris and Eliza,  came in to talk about Buddhism. We learnt about the Dharma wheel and how that reflects the Noble Eightfold path which gives Buddhists guidance as to how to live their lives and make the right decisions about their behaviour. We all had a go at some meditation and felt very relaxed afterwards. The classroom was silent! We also had a visit from Mr Greenman from Trinity at Four in Henley who spoke to us about how Christians are influenced by their beliefs in doing the right thing. We heard the true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrams and how their religious beliefs made them do what they considered the right thing at the Olympic Games in 1924. We had lots of fun hot seating the 2 characters.

In maths we have been working on formal methods of division. All children are working on using the bus stop method to divide 2 or 3 digit numbers by 1 digit. We have also continued to improve our time telling skills.

In literacy we wrote a letter in role as the Old Man from The Tin Forest persuading his local council to collect the rubbish from around his house. We had some great letters using persuasive techniques and included some well thought through arguments.

We investigated endangered species in geography. We looked at where they are from, what threats they faced and how many are left in the world. We realised that a common theme amongst the threats to their survival was the impact that humans are having on them from deforestation and loss of habitat, to pollution, hunting and climate change. We also spent time learning about ways in which we can all help limit and reverse the threats we have been investigating to planet Earth and it's creatures.

In Science we have been continuing to learn about plants. After learning about the different layers of the rainforest we have been looking at how plants adapt to survive, for example having wide glossy leaves to catch rain then funnel it down to the ground for the roots. 

We continued to use Scratch in Computing to improve our coding skills. We had lots of fun playing a game with our partner trying to spot changes that we had made to code.

Please can everyone that hasn't already bring in a small box with a lid attached for DT on Tuesday next week. A 6 egg box is a great size.

Sable played a great joke on the class today when she put a stone on everyone's chair in the morning! Children were very confused as to what was going on! 

Don't forget homework - reading, reading, reading! Every day and recorded in home school diaries! Sumdog for times tables. Thank you for your support with this. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!